The Name, alertness of mind
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अवघी मिथ्या आटी । राम नाहीं तंव कंठीं ॥1॥
सावधान सावधान । उगवीं संकल्पीं हें मन ॥ध्रु.॥
सांडिलें तें मांडे। आघ्र उरल्या काळें दंडे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आलें भागा । देउनि चिंतीं पांडुरंगा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
All effort is futile as long as Rama is not in your throat. Be alert, be alert! Untangle the mind from its own projections. What you abandoned will pile up again, and remaining karma will punish you in due time. Says Tuka, accept what has come to your lot.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
All your effort is false as long as Rama is not in your throat. Be alert, be alert. Untangle this mind from its own plans and projections. What you set aside will pile up again, and the karma that is left will punish you in time. Tuka says: take what has fallen to your lot, give it over, and think of Panduranga.
What it means
Tukaram makes the Name the test of whether anything we do is real. Without Rama on the tongue, all our striving is empty. So he calls for alertness and for untangling the mind from its own schemes, since whatever we merely push aside without uprooting will gather again, and the karma we left unfinished will come back to strike when its time comes. His resolution is to stop fighting fate and instead accept the lot that has come, hand it over, and keep the mind fixed on Panduranga.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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